Possible A.N. Genesis

[Crazycat]

I found a copy of my medical records going back to my birth on which every ailment and doctor visit had been listed. I noticed that I had an enormous number of ear infections as an infant and toddler.

When I was five years-old I was clocked on the left side of my head with a golf ball—on the ear specifically—while walking home from Kindergarten across a big field. I started having short, profound dizzy spells at age 11 that would occur only once in a while up through the age of 30. I often wonder if those dizzy spells were a sign of what was to come.  The hearing in my left ear was good until 2001 or so.

In 1983 at the age of 26 I began to experience strange, shifting visual problems where my field of vision would continually rise upward and reset with my head in a stationary position. Around that time I went out one night to hear a live rock band. The next morning I awoke to find the room spinning out of control—total vertigo. It was so bad the first day or two that I could barely even stand-up and had to crawl to get around. When I could stand I'd have to lean on a wall to brace myself as I walked. I was in that condition for one week, improving slightly day to day. I was taken to the emergency room during that time and told that I had an inner ear infection without having any tests done. It wasn't until many years later that I realized the inner ear infection may have been aggravated by the exposure to loud noise that night and only recently that the incident occurring in 1983 could have signified the beginning of my AN growth.

Those dizzy spells I used to have were as remarkable as they were terrifying in that they were much like having seizures. I would be stopped in mid-stride and literally brought to my knees. Accompanying the intense vertigo would be a loud buzzing in my head that was so intense it felt as though my skull was vibrating. Everything would turn green and I'd collapse. As I got older I learned that I could stave them off as I felt them coming-on by contracting the muscles around my eyes as if squinting and yelling "NO!!!". Then the feeling would go away. It was particularly horrifying when I'd feel one coming-on while behind the wheel.

The point of all this is, looking back, I've been plagued-with weird ear-related, equilibrium problems since childhood. By the time my AN was diagnosed it had grown to 5 cm x 5 cm (that's 50 millimeters by 50 millimeters!) with accompanying hydrocephalus. I cannot help but wonder how far back this condition or predisposition could have been diagnosed, treated and even completely averted if I had been given proper treatment and testing.

[ppearl214]

It's interesting you note this as we (my family) discussed the same about my sister who passed from a malignant brain tumor. She used to have convulsions and such at approx age of 2 and older... and we lost her at her age of 13.   She was not diagnosed properly until 4 mos before she passed.

It's interesting in my reads of the threads here that there are many that have noted long term issues in their past (ie: hearing deterioration, etc) over time.. and some that were misdiagnosed and eventually, AN's discovered down the road. I'm curious if diagnostic technologies that are available now that weren't back then also play a role as it may be easier to diagnose AN's and such better now than before.

Just my 2 cents. I had coffee.

Phyl

[EJTampa]

My AN was small at the time of surgery, just 1.3 cm, but my parents actually asked me if I thought it could be why I had so many ear infections as a child.  I dismissed the idea, given the size of the tumor, but it does make one wonder.
 
Ernie

[Crazycat]

MRIs did not exist back in the '60s and '70s. Today the MRI is the diagnostic tool of choice and should be readily available to those who show such symptoms. It bothers me that even today people complaining of such symptoms are brushed-off due to either diffident, slipshod medical attention and/or prohibitive health care costs.

Phyl, I never knew about your sister until now. That's terrible! Had we ever talked about this over the years?

[Kaybo]

I NEVER had any ear troubles - not 1 ear infection - until college, & then I just had the one.  Obviously, I had my AN by then since that was just about 1-2 years before my surgery and my tumor was "huge"!

K

[Jim Scott]

Paul:

I hate to be contrary but I don't recall ever having an ear infection as a child or an adult.  I don't have any recollections of being hit on the head in a way that made me dizzy or otherwise indicated damage, either.  However, for many years, I was unable to lie flat on my back and look straight up without getting a bit dizzy.  Simple solution: I didn't lie flat on my back and try to look straight up.  However, following my surgery, this 'symptom' disappeared, never to return.  I doubt it was a coincidence but simply demonstrated how long the AN had been growing. 

Jim

[AMD]

I had TONS of ear infections resulting in bilateral ear drum scarring, but I was told this was no relation to the AN.

[nteeman]

I can remember one ear infection and that's it. However, I survived a train wreck and run over by a car twelve years later, both involved head trauma. Maybe that had caused my AN?


Then again, maybe not.


Neal

[Crazycat]

I can only speak for myself. We are all put together differently. Those dizzy spells I had throughout the early part of my life were never diagnosed or attributed to anything but I can tell you that it had to do with my ear.

   Also, I had diagnosed myself as having an Acoustic Neuroma before it had been deemed official after my first MRI. I had come to that conclusion through reading as much as I could find about my symptoms together with gut instinct and several blood tests. I was asking doctors if it could be Acoustc Neuroma.

I'm not trying to say that it's the same way for everyone—not at all. In my case however, I feel that somehow there is a connection. There are things about our physical nature, both as a species and individually that we do not yet understand.

I told one of my doctors about that golf ball incident and he dismissed it. Yet, I had problems with dizzy spells and equilibrium that dogged me throughout my life ever since that incident had occurred. I'm just working off my gut instinct.

I remember the ridiculous things people would say to me when I was in the throes of becoming ill with the AN: everything from neck subluxation to liver poisoning to being over-stressed ("it's all in your mind"). Yeah, right. I knew something was terribly wrong because I'm the one that's living in this body.

I know a girl that I grew up with; a friend of the family that had problems with inner ear infections as a child. She eventually lost her hearing in one ear because of a virus.

The way she was going I'm surprised that she wasn't prone to Acoustic Neuroma. But here again, we're all different.

[HeadCase2]

Hi Crazycat,
  I doubt that AN is related to chronic ear infections.   The vast majority of kids who have chronic ear infections when they're young, grow out of it when they get older, and never end up with an AN.
 In reading about your dizzyness epiosdes, it does sound like these where early effects of AN.  My AN was misdiagnosed (by two different ENTs) in 1980 when I had sudden hearing loss on the left side.  I also had a dizzyness episode in 1985, that was thought to be viral ventriculitus (a viral infection of the balance canals).
  What a long strange trip it's been. [apologies to the Grateful Dead]
Regards,
  Rob